President Obama Misses a Chance on Foreign Affairs — President Obama and his aides heralded his commencement speech at the United States Military Academy at West Point on Wednesday as a big moment, when he would lay out his foreign policy vision for the remainder of his term and refute his critics.

Cheney: Obama ‘weakest’ president of my lifetime — Former Vice President Dick Cheney blasted President Obama as the weakest president of his lifetime on Wednesday, following the president's speech defending his foreign policy approach at the West Point commencement ceremony.

John Boehner's friends plot tea party crackdown — They've given John Boehner constant headaches during his three years as speaker. — Now, Boehner's friends are trying to make sure that a small pocket of tea-party-aligned Republicans won't have a chance to derail his speakership next year.

The Transgender Tipping Point — Nearly a year after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, another social movement is poised to challenge deeply held cultural beliefs — In the beaux-arts lobby of the Nourse Theater in San Francisco, men in deep V-necks and necklaces walk by women …

Laverne Cox Talks to TIME About the Transgender Movement — The Orange Is the New Black star on politics, happiness and why genitalia isn't destiny — On TIME's cover this week is an unlikely icon: Laverne Cox. Bullied and harassed for appearing feminine while growing up in Mobile …

U.S. economy shrinks, but it's not a big deal — Brace yourself. The U.S. economy looks like it went on a roller-coaster ride at the start of the year. — Revised numbers released Thursday show the economy shrank in the first quarter, marking the first downturn since early 2011.

A Liberal Moderate's Critique of Snowden and Greenwald — In a review of Glenn Greenwald's No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, George Packer, whose best work is superb, makes a number of dubious claims. They are typical of liberal moderates who acknowledge …

Thomas Piketty Responds to Criticism of His Data — Six days after The Financial Times launched an attack on the data behind Thomas Piketty's much-debated tome on inequality, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” Mr. Piketty has offered his first detailed response to the newspaper's criticism.

The Economy: Don't Look Now, But . . . News has just crossed the wire this morning that the economy contracted at an annual rate of 1 percent during the first quarter of this year. Many people will probably point to the brutal winter weather as a factor, though the Dept. of Commerce fingers …

VA secretary: I'm committed to restoring integrity — IG findings are reprehensible, and we are not waiting to set things straight. — The findings of the interim report of VA's Office of Inspector General on the Phoenix VA Health Care System are reprehensible to me and to this department …

Michelle Obama on Attempts to Roll Back Healthy Reforms — WHEN we began our Let's Move! initiative four years ago, we set one simple but ambitious goal: to end the epidemic of childhood obesity in a generation so that kids born today will grow up healthy. — To achieve this goal, we have adhered to one clear standard: what works.

Ignoring the path to recovery — It is said that the problem with the younger generation — any younger generation — is that it has not read the minutes of the last meeting. Barack Obama, forever young, has convenient memory loss: It serves his ideology.

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